


Timeline Twenty-Three

by thehollowprince



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Gen, special guest appearance by Todd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-29 23:59:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19841263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thehollowprince/pseuds/thehollowprince
Summary: What happened before timeline Twenty-Three became the post-apocalyptic world we saw?





	1. Prologue - Fogg

**Author's Note:**

> My take on Timeline Twenty-Three for the 39 Graves Challenge for the Magicians Rec Center on Tumblr

Henry Fogg, distinguished dean of Brakebills University of Magical Pedagogy, sat at his desk, stacks of paperwork and magical glowing globes decorating it's vast surface, not that he paid any of it any kind of attention.  
  
No, for the twenty-third time, he sat at his desk, decanter of his favorite bourbon sitting before him with a healthy amount poured into the signature crystal tumbler in his hand. After Quentin dosed him with truth serum a few days previously, he'd seriously considered giving up the bottle, but here he was, drowning his sorrows.  
  
He'd thrown Eliza - Jane! - out an hour ago, tired of her endless excuses for using children to fight this ongoing battle with her bastard of a brother.  
  
To think he'd been a fan of those books when he was a boy.  
  
What he wouldn't give to have to deal with Rupert instead of these two, but the best of the Chatwins was long dead by this point in time, killed by the very brother he tried to protect and then stop.  
  
Fogg raised the glass to his lips and swallowed over half of the alcohol, trying to dull everything to a distant buzz.  
  
One would think he'd be used to this by now. Losing his students, that is. Not just Quentin and Julia, and those two loud-mouths Margo and Eliot, but all his students. They all left Brakebills eventually, and not all of them voluntarily, or even in one piece. Back before battle-magic was banned, they lost an average of three students a year.  
  
But here he was, drowning his sorrows in expensive booze, and when that ran out, the cheap swill he had as backup, mourning students he never particularly liked. No, that wasn't entirely true. Julia was a gem, the first truly gifted student who'd come through the doors of their illustrious institution since Fogg himself. A real protege, and he'd lost her to this senseless family feud.  
  
In a sudden fit of drunken rage, Fogg reared back and hurled the tumbler in his hand across the room with a wordless scream, shattering the expensive crystal on the wall and staining it with the bourbon.  
  
He put his face in his hands and let the sobs come. Crying not just for the lives lost, but also for the certainty that he'd have to live through this again. And again. And again and again and again, until either these students - these children! - finally managed to beat a master magician that even gods feared to face, or until Jane gave up and moved on to something else, finally giving him peace.  
  
Not likely to happen in the immediate future.  
  
Hopefully his future selves would learn from these past mistakes and not get too attached this time, certainly not like he had in the beginning, trying to actively assist them and all them, all of which led to his extremely painful demise.  
  
No, better that he remain a rock in this ocean of emotional bullshit, letting these insignificant millenials break upon and around him, unfeeling, swept away in a confluence of events outside their control.  
  
Fogg blindly reached out and grabbed the decanter and raised it to his lips.


	2. Quentin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They say your life flashes before your eyes just before you die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Each chapter is based around a different character, and here's Quentin's.

They say you're entire life flashes before your eyes just before you die, so why was it, that all Quentin saw was his life post Brakebills? No thoughts of his mother or father. Not Brooklyn or even Michael, who was a big part of both his and Julia's lives.  
  
Just Brakebills.  
  
Just Magic.  
  
Quentin hadn't started living until he found out magic was real. Not until that day he chased after a page in a garden in Brooklyn and found himself at the edge of the Sea, Brakebills massive front lawn, and ran into the first person he would meet with his new life. As the Beast advanced on him, face a swirling maelstrom of monstrous moths, he almost laughed, realizing he hadn't thought of Eliot in months. Not since he finally found out Fillory was real and that he could go there.  
  
Would Eliot even miss him?   
  
Would Margo?  
  
They hadn't ended things on the best of terms. Neither had he and Alice.  
  
Oh! Alice!  
  
Quentin scrambled backward in the dirt, the Beast advancing on him in his immaculate suit. Every spell he'd ever learned since first walking into that exam room those years ago had fled his brain as he faced his imminent death  
  
Why had he thought this was a good idea?  
  
He'd known he'd died twenty-two times before this. Fogg couldn't lie about that, not with the truth serum in his booze. Why did he think coming to Fillory with just Julia would be a good idea. Just because she was the greatest student Brakebills had ever seen, the best magician he'd known, they thought they could take on something that made Ember shit his pants.  
  
And the thing was, even as he thought that, he wasn't sure that Julia was the greatest magician he knew. She was amazing and all, but not next to Alice...

  
*** * ***

  
_They were in the Physical Cottage (obviously! There wasn't anywhere else at Brakebills to just hang) and it was one of those rare moments were it was quiet, no party ongoing or in the making. A few of those who'd partied a little too hard littered the floor and furniture, still sleeping off the hangovers from the night before (it was an epic party, even by their standards!), but not a single one of them was in any state of mind to pay attention, let alone care about the stomping down the stairs.  
_  
 _Well, maybe the pounding of their heads made them groan a little bit at the unexpected and unwanted noise, but not a single one lifted their heads to see what the commotion was about.  
_  
 _"Alice! Alice, wait!" Quentin said, flying down the stairs while pulling on his shirt, trying to catch the love of his life before she was out of his life. He finally managed to reach her, grabbing her arm to prevent her from leaving, only to have her spin around and smack him across the face with all of her might.  
_  
 _Quentin reeled, unable to process what had just happened.  
_  
 _Alice had hit him. Alice! Meek, quiet little Alice, whose eyes burned with rage behind her glasses.  
_  
 _After that, it just devolved into her yelling at him and Quentin trying to defend himself, despite knowing that he had no defense. By now, the lazy layabouts were taking an interest, as they didn't want to move and there was free entertainment right in front of them.  
_  
 _"Hey, guys?"  
_  
 _"_ What _?!" Both Quentin and Alice turned to snap at Julia, who stood to the side with Penny at her back (where one went the other followed anymore). Julia's eyes were wide and Penny seemed amused by the implosion of Quentin's relationship right in front of him.  
_  
 _"Um... I have that truth serum you wanted to dose Fogg with." Julia supplied hesitantly, holding out the vial of the potion that she and Quentin had been working on for weeks._  
 _"I'm kind of in the middle of something." Quentin tried, but Alice interrupted him.  
_  
 _"No, this is as good a time as any to run off and play detective with your former crush." Okay, wow! Those words hurt. Not that Quentin didn't think Julia already knew that, but to hear it out loud, in front of her and anyone who was listening was a punch to the gut. A low blow indeed, and one he probably deserved.  
_  
 _As if to further drive home how much he hated himself at that moment, the redhead who had caused so much damage in his life after one night poked her head around the railing on the stairs.  
_  
 _"Hey, has anyone seen my pants?" she asked.  
_  
 _Alice let out a strangled sound before turning and storming out the front door while Quentin didn't know whether to scream or cry, turning to disappear further into the cottage to gather his thoughts.  
_  
 _"What did I miss?" Julia asked, clearly confused, a gleefully grinning Penny struggling to c_ _ontain his laughter.  
_  
 _"Beats me." The red haired girl said before stretching out her hand. "Hi, I'm Poppy."_

  
*** * ***

  
It figures Quentin would remember one of his lowest points as he lay on the ground, bleeding out from the wound on his neck.   
  
Wait... when did that happen? Quentin reached up with his hand to put pressure on the wound only to find that his left arm was missing. A quick glance over showed his still twitching fingers about a meter away.  
  
Huh?   
  
Maybe he should be grateful that his mind was blocking out the pain.  
  
Of course, the moment he thought that was the moment the pain decided to make it's reappearance.   
  
There was screaming involved, though he didn't know if it was his own or the screams of someone just outside his peripheral vision. Sounded like Julia, but everything was so distorted right now. Then it was silent.  
  
Okay, not him screaming. Though he was making this weird gurgling sound.   
  
A swarm of - no, an eclipse of moths (gotta use the right term, even in the face of certain death) flew into view and the Beast was upon him again.  
  
"Hello, Quentin," the refined voice that didn't at all match the monstrous appearance said from within the writhing mass of insect wings. "We simply have to stop meeting like this." And then a six-fingered hand was in his chest pulling out... something? His heart? No, that was a child. That was him from around the time he was nine, and this little mini-me was kicking and screaming, fighting the Beast's grip as this monster tore the child apart.  
  
Quentin's vision started to darken and the last thing he remembered before everything went black was a scream, but it wasn't his. Wait, was that Ali-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a lot shorter and vague than my original idea, but after that finale and what happened, I thought I'd dial back the angst and pain.


	3. Margo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Don't cock out on me!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Margo's chapter

They say that your entire life flashes before your eyes before you die, but all Margo could remember was the past hour, from slapping Eliot to sober him up to preparing for the spell that would prove to the world what a badass she truly was.

  
*** * ***

  
_This was all that little shit, Quentin's fault.  
_   
_Okay, well maybe not entirely his fault, but that's who this creepy Mothman seemed fixated on. That stupid little nerd king and his unhealthy fixation on a made-up world._   
_Fillory.  
_   
_Don't get her wrong, Margo had loved those books, too. When she was younger and her dad was away on one of his many business trips, and her mother was gracing whatever club was popular at the moment with her presence, Margo used to stay up with the nanny and pretend she was the ambassador to the Outer Islands.  
_   
_She understands escaping the shittiness of life.  
_   
_Gods know she and Eliot do that on a nightly basis. Host and attend parties that wash away all the mundane bullshit they want to forget. All the things about their lives from before Brakebills. For her, it was her relationship with her father. She used to worship the ground he walked on, soaking in all of his life lessons, until she became too much like him. A ruler, someone who bowed to no one, not even him, and he couldn't have that.  
_   
_She'd come a long way, trying to prove her worth, not just to her father, who didn't care, but to herself. Her first introduction to magic, all those years ago when she robbed a bank with those cutthroat Hedges.  
_   
_Now, she was a graduate (almost) of one of the most prestigious schools of magic on Earth. And she was going to prove herself yet again, but powering up with this co-op spell and doing one of the most badass battle spells ever created.  
_   
_She would show that pixie bitch!  
_   
_Well, they would show her, it her other half could get it together for five fucking minutes!  
_   
_"Eliot!" Margo shouted, finally having found the last book she needed for this cooperative spell. Her friend, impeccably dressed as ever, stumbled around the stacks and toward her, walking a lot straighter than he had been since before she'd taken his flask from him.  
_   
_"I'm here." He was still a bit bleary-eyed, but time was of the essence. They both had their reasons for doing this spell, and like hell was she going to let his alcoholism get in the way of that.  
_   
_"Let's do this while the moon's still in the right phase, because I don't want to have to wait another month to try this."  
_   
_"Maybe it's best that we do?" Eliot proposed hesitantly. "I don't think I'm ready and that way I have time to sober up." He reached forward as he said this, and Margo immediately slapped his hand away.  
_   
_"You're not getting a pass so you can go on another bender." She snapped. He narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to retort, but she beat him to it. "Maybe this is why Q chose Alice over you. When was the last time we saw her down an entire liquor store because things didn't go her way?"  
_   
_Eliot froze.  
_   
_Okay, low blow, she knows, but if it works.  
_   
_Margo immediately softened her tone and try to console her best (and only) friend. "Look, I'm sorry, but if we do this spell right and take care of the Beast hunting him, maybe he'll see you for the beautiful man you are." Eliot raised his eyes. "Not that I don't like Alice," (she doesn't) "but lord knows that girl has problems of her own that she should probably work through." She reached out and patted his arm in a reassuring manner. "You're viable competition, so let's show him that."  
_   
_Eliot was silent for a moment, contemplating her words before squaring his shoulders and nodding in agreement. "You're right."  
_   
_"You're damn right I'm right." Margo joked. "Now let's go show that pixie twat that we're not some scared first years."_

  
*** * ***

  
Everything had been going so well, until Eliot slurred a few of the words and performed Popper Eighty-Six instead of Sixty-Eight the way he was supposed to. Her last thought before the spell blew up in her face (literally) was how she never got to show the world what a badass she truly was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I really pulled this back from what I originally planned. My original take on this was much more graphic but after season four, I couldn't bring myself to do it.


	4. Penny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Find a Penny, pick it up...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did Penny become the sullen, defeated thing we met in timeline 23?

They say you're entire life flashes before your eyes just before you die, but did that count when it wasn't your life?  
  
In a way, it was his life - his life since he met her.   
  
Julia, the love of his life, his soul mate - though if you'd have told him that before Brakebills, he probably would have laughed or punched you in the face, maybe both, but he definitely wouldn't have believed you. Not with his "gift", seeing into the heart and soul of every person around him (provided they didn't have decent wards up), because he'd seen inside the heads of too many people to ever think that love was a real concept.  
  
Until Julia, that is.  
  
He still remembered the first time he'd seen her...

  
*** * ***

  
_Penny lounged on his bed in the dorm, flipping through the manuscript that that loser with the hair left behind when he went to meet the Dean while drinking a beer. Some fairy-tale garbage. Figures this guy would write fanfiction about those snotty overpriveleged white kids from WWII finding and becoming the kings and queens of a mythical land.  
_   
_He scoffed while taking a sip of his beer, spilling some on the pages in his hand.  
_   
_Of course this nerdy white guy would think the world was bitterly unfair and would seek solace in a fantasy. How typical.  
_   
_Realizing he ruined the pages and not wanting to deal with his roommate's whining when he came back.  
_   
_And come back he did, though this time he was accompanied by a girl who was way too good for him. Not that he thought this loser could land a woman like that, but he'd seen stranger things in this life. She was small with long dark hair and she shone though his third-eye, not that he would ever call it that out loud, but it was the truth. It was rare that he saw someone while not being able to see inside their head. Either she was trained enough to keep him out of her head or she was just naturally gifted.  
_   
_"Oh... uh... hi." His roommate said when they walked through the door and saw him on his bed. He turned to look back at the girl. "Julia, this is um...?" Fucker didn't even know his name. Granted, Penny didn't know his either, but it was probably something bland like John or Stuart or something like that.  
_   
_"Penny." He introduced himself, standing from the bed and stretching out his hand. She smiled politely and accepted his hand, her tiny one fitting into his much larger grip._   
_"Julia." She replied.  
_   
_"Penny?" The little nerd king asked, apparently unable to stop himself.  
_   
_"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Penny asked, his tone immediately switching to aggressive and confrontational, something he'd had plenty of practice with._   
_"No, I, uh..." Oh, great. He was one of those.  
_   
_"And what's your name?"  
_   
_"Quentin Coldwater." Of course it was.  
_   
_They were saved from any more awkward conversation by the door unceremoniously being thrown open and revealing two more people, the guy taller even then himself and the girl around Julia's size. Penny knew just at a glance that the girl was the scarier of the two. Her dark eyes quickly roamed over Penny and Julia before going to Quentin, a viper-like smirk on her face.  
_   
_"This is him?" Her eyes took in Quentin before her smirk turned into a smile. "He's not that cute."  
_   
_Well, this couldn't get any more awkward.  
_   
_The moment stretched on and on until this new girl finally turned to the door and paused at the frame, looking back. "Let's go, kiddies."  
_   
_"Come on," the taller guy reached out and latched onto Quentin's arm and dragged him out of the room. Quentin looked back at Julia with a panicked look in his eyes, with Julia chuckling and moving to follow. She paused in the doorway, much like the other woman had, and turned back to look at Penny, though her brown eyes were noticeably kinder.  
_   
_"You coming?"_   


  
*** * ***

  
Now Penny watched as she strode toward the Beast, the creature that had haunted his thoughts since he was a child, and Penny could do naught by stand there and watch as his warrior witch moved her hands in a flurry of complicated movements that he was pretty sure even Alice would have a hard time keeping up with.  
  
All to save her best friend, who wasn't worth it in Penny's mind.  
  
Nothing was enough for that guy. He threw away his relationship with Alice for a one-night-stand with that sociopathic redhead and then went chasing after his fairy tale, despite the known fact that there was a monster waiting for him there.  
  
What an idiot.  
  
And this idiot was going to take his Julia down with him.  
  
The Beast dropped what was left of Quentin's body to the ground, blood pouring from his neck and his entire left arm missing, his legs crippled and turned toward Julia, who threw out whatever spell she'd been working on, only for the Beast to catch it as if it were a ball tossed by a child.  
  
"Oh, Julia." The Beast singsonged, that melodious voice not at all matching the swarm of moths that was his face, "You'll have to do much better than that." The spell was tossed aside and it hurled through the air before colliding with the dilapidated temple along the road, which caught flame in an explosion of multi-colored lights.  
  
Penny's attention flew back to Julia who was throwing up basic wards and shields while stepping backward, trying to keep distance between the thing set on killing her while simultaneously trying to come up with another plan of action. This would have worked except the Beast tore throw her shields like they were pieces of wet paper before eventually catching her by the throat. Penny moved to help but found that he couldn't move. His eyes twitched in their sockets, but all he saw out of the corner of his eye was Alice frozen in place, moving forward to help Quentin.  
  
"You get to watch." The Beast's voice whispered in his head.  
  
And watch he did, watch as he finally got a hold of Julia and tore her to pieces, bit by bit by bit, unable to help, unable to scream, but still able to cry.   
This wasn't real. This couldn't be real!  
  
Penny couldn't even close his eyes so that he didn't have to look at what remained of the love of his life. He didn't want this to be how he remembered Julia. He wanted to remember her laugh, how her skin felt against his, how her hair felt in his fingers, how her lips felt against his, not this bloody, mutilated mess, not those screams.  
  
More screams attracted this attention, with Penny rolling his eyes as far to the side as he could to see the Beast moving in to finish off what was left of Quentin, reaching inside of the magician and pulling out... a kid?  
  
Something was wrong about the kid though. He - it? - was glowing, and thrashing, trying its best to escape the Beast's six-fingered grip. Penny watched as it tore that child apart, the same way it dismembered Julia and Quentin.  
  
A scream broke through his thoughts, and the spell that held him in place. He lurched forward and saw Alice throw out her arm and a wave of power flew through the space between her and the Beast. It connected that monster in it's distracted state, some of the moths dropping dead on the ground, and the man in the well-groomed suit stumbled backward, the kid-thing in his hands (or what was left of it) dissolving into some weird golden mist.  
  
The Beast quickly righted itself and chuckled, straightening it's suit before taking a step forward. Before it could stop him again, Penny jumped forward and gripped Alice by the shoulders before traveling them both out there and back to Earth.  
  
We won't go into too much detail as to why, but Alice was pissed that Penny yanked her away from the fight and shoved him away from her the moment they were back on solid ground - the Sea at Brakebills. She wanted vengeance and Penny would have tried to talk her out of it, but at that moment the Beast's voice whispered in his ears, letting him know that they weren't out of the woods yet.  
  
Penny wasn't proud of it, but he got the hell out of Doge, traveling to places that Mayakofsky only hinted at until he ended up in an abandoned library, books falling off the shelves and not a single person in sight, but thankfully, no more voice in his head.  
  
It was only then that Penny dropped to his knees and let the sobs come.


	5. Eliot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "She called me a lush, which is basically just a nice way of saying alcoholic."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What passed through Eliot's mind just before his death

They say you're entire life flashes before your eyes just before you die, so what did that say about Eliot that most of the things he saw he couldn't remember. Only the really tragic moments stood out, like middle-school and the relationships he fucked up with his addictions, and Quentin.  
  
God, he'd fucked that up royally, driving a wedge between them and ruining things to the point that not even their friendship survived.  
  
And then their was Margo.  
  
Oh, Bambi!  
  
He was so sorry. He tried to tell her he wasn't ready - granted that was just so he could drink more, but that's besides the point. He had wanted so badly to prove to Quentin that he did care, to at the very least, repair their friendship, and he would do that with the Rhinemann Ultra (sounded like a crappy beer). He and Margo would take out this Beast that was hunting Q and then he would see how great Eliot was.   
  
He was such an idiot.  
  
He shouldn't have agreed to that spell. Not that he had much time to ponder that as the moment he saw Margo - his Bambi - with half her face gone, the cooperative spell he'd been working on with her turned on him, tearing into his skin like millions of fire ants and glass knives.  
  
His whole life flashed before his eyes and the last thought he had before everything went dark was that his life sucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is woefully short, and I apologize for that. I just didn't know what to do with Eliot.


	6. Julia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julia

They say you're entire life flashes before your eyes just before you die, but all Julia saw were her regrets.  
  
How she'd ended things with James.  
  
Her relationship with her sister that was tossed aside the moment she discovered magic was real.  
  
The non-existent relationship she had with her overbearing mother and how they never mended that bridge.  
  
How she'd treated Quentin all those years rather than telling him the truth.  
  
But most importantly, she had regrets about all the magic she never got to learn. All the spells she never got to try, or invent. All the great things she could have done with that knowledge, maybe even becoming a professor at Brakebills herself one day.  
  
Oh, and Penny.  
  
She'd never get to see Penny again, never get to explore where this bond between them could have gone. Never get to discover any more truths about him. Hell, squeezing out his real name had been hard enough...

  
*** * ***

  
_"William?"  
_   
_Penny averted his eyes as if gathering his thoughts before meeting her gaze once again. "Yeah. I didn't pick it."  
_   
_"What's wrong with William?" Julia asked, slightly confused, but mostly teasing.  
_   
_"It's a white name." Penny fired back.  
_   
_"So why Penny?"  
_   
_The Traveler chuckled, "I'm sorry, we have to be level ten friends before you can unlock my tragic back story."  
_   
_"Why does it have to be tragic?"  
_   
_"Because it was."  
_   
_"Look, not to be a pain in the ass, but maybe you should talk about it?" Julia suggested. "After all, no time like the present, right?" She held up her bound arms in front of her nude body for emphasis. This Third Trial was taking longer than the first two, and at this rate, Quentin was going to beat her to the finish, and that wasn't going to happen.  
_   
_Penny, for his part, averted his eyes once again. Julia may not have been psychic, but she could see what was going on in his head, the wheels that were turning, the scales being weighed, all to determine if he could tell just one person - Julia! - a small piece of his life before Brakebills. Before magic.  
_   
_Not to pressure him, Julia averted her own gaze, allowing her eyes to follow the lines of paint that she applied to him herself before her hands were bound with magical rope, thinking of what truth she would tell him that would get them out of this.  
_   
_"I grew up in the foster system." Penny's deep voice cut through her thoughts. Her brown eyes met his as she gave him her undivided attention. "My mom was... occupied and my dad wasn't in the picture, so I bounced around from foster home to foster home. One of the early ones said I wasn't worth the pennies they got to take care of me, and the name kind of stuck from there." Julia opened her mouth, but then quickly closed it. What do you say to something like that? Sorry doesn't cut it and there's nothing she could say that could erase the pain he was still bottling up. Silence was the best option, to just let him know that she was here and was listening.  
_   
_"I hated Florida and I hated my families, each one seemed worse than the one before it, until I reached eighteen and got the hell out of there." Penny sighed. "I was on my own, in every way, until I came here." His gaze turned hesitant. "Until I met you."  
_   
_Now, Julia wasn't the psychic of this little duo, but she could read between the lines, especially when the ropes that had bound Penny's hands suddenly fell apart and dropped to the ground like dead snakes.  
_   
_So Julia said the only thing that she could think of in that moment (a rare occurrence), "I love you, too."  
_   
_Following suit, the ropes that held her bound slipped free of their own and joined their brethren at their feet. She and Penny leaned in, because that was what you were supposed to do in moments like this, but just before their lips touched, Penny reared back.  
_   
_"What?" Julia asked. "What is it? Do I have bad breath?"  
_   
_She watched as Penny opened his mouth and closed it several times before his body contorted in pain.  
_   
_"Penny!" Julia reached for him, but then the pain struck her, too. For the next several seconds, she and Penny twitched on the grass under the light of the moon, the pain making it seem like an eternity, until suddenly it was over and they both took to the skies, following some instinctive knowledge to head south._

  
*** * ***

  
Julia threw up shield after shield as she backed away from the Beast, trying to think of something - anything! - that she could use to fend him off. She just had to keep this thing distracted long enough for Quentin to pull himself together, though a quick glance out of the corner of her eye said that wasn't going to be as easy as she at first thought as he was missing his left arm and blood was flowing from a bite wound in his neck.  
  
She could handle this.  
  
She had this!  
  
Julia had read about Battle Magic and knew that you had to be "clean" to cast it, and right now, the only thought on her mind was survival, so she threw that passion into each new shield and barrier and wall that she threw up between her and the Beast. But the Beast kept on coming, tearing through each spell like it was nothing. And each time he tore through them, she felt a physical ache, like she was being punched in the gut, accompanied by a flash of memory.  
  
She almost laughed.  
  
Her life was flashing before her eyes.  
  
She remembered that first flight as a goose, being free and untethered, and even all of the negative stuff that came with being a fowl, like having to shit more than she's ever had in her life.  
  
She remembered the elation she felt when Fogg looked at her so proudly before declaring her a Knowledge student.  
  
She remembered her first time with Penny.  
  
She remembered her first time with James, who was off living his life now, not knowing where his two best friends had disappeared to.  
  
She remembered stepping into Fillory for the first time, forty years in the past and realizing that her and Q were part of the story the whole time. How cool was that?  
  
She remembered -   
  
Julia remembered nothing then, because her wards were exhausted and the Beast's extra-digited hands closed around her throat.  
  
The last thing she truly comprehended was someone shouting her name. Well, the second to last thing. The last thing was that she tasted pennies in her mouth. She wasn't alive long enough to realize it was blood.


	7. Josh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't be a dick... Josh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know

They say you're entire life flashes before your eyes just before you die, and to be honest, there was a moment there where Josh almost wet himself, metaphorically speaking. He did wet himself when he had to jump into that stupid fountain to finally get back to Earth, when he realized that no one was ever coming for him.  
  
Weeks he'd spent in the Neitherlands, waiting for Victoria to come back, but nothing.  
  
Once, when he was scavenging, looking for supplies while avoiding those freaks with the hoods, he thought he'd seen Poppy, but that was impossible. She wouldn't just leave him to rot in the Neitherlands, would she?  
  
The more Josh thought about it at the time, the more he realized that yes, she would have. Poppy was a brilliant magician, and a total freak in the sack, but empathy and compassion weren't really her strongest traits.  
  
But no matter. He'd made it back to Earth, and back to Brakebills, only to find out that two years had gone by and those five remaining students from his year were on the verge of graduating while he was still a first year. But that was alright, because he met Quentin and Julia and Penny (who seriously didn't like him) and those two divas Eliot and Margo, who barely seemed to even realize he was there, and most importantly, Todd.  
  
Todd, a fellow kindred spirit in this crazy world of magical academia and world-jumping monsters with moths for faces.  
  
The parties at the Physical Kid cottage weren't bad either. That Eliot sure knew how to mix a drink, and when paired with one of Josh's "magical" confections, he was trippin' for days. But all that aside, there was still this divide between Josh and everyone else. He missed two year of life on Earth and now couldn't connect with anyone, especially when he realized that Poppy had in fact gotten back to Earth and left him in the Neitherlands.  
  
Okay, so he was a little bitter about what had happened to him and the fact that no one seemed to care enough to save him, or even check on him, but he could fix that. Josh would take control of his life and turn things around, which was why he went and got his eyes fixed (no more glasses for him) and went on a diet (goodbye beautiful pastries) and went back to Brakebills, ready to impress, only to find almost everyone gone or dead.  
  
"Typical." Josh said to himself before heading toward the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Josh didn't really factor into their lives in 23, but I wanted this in here just in case I decide to go further with the timeline, to show how we got where we were when Jules and Josh showed up.


	8. Epilogue - Alice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Tesla Flection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alice after meeting Quentin in the Tesla Flection

Alice dropped to her knees and started sobbing uncontrollably, having finally seen Quentin again after all this time and been unable to touch him, to hold him one last time. Sure, it hadn't been her Quentin, but it was Quentin all the same, down to his nervous ticks and his stupid face. She'd finally gotten to apologize for how things ended between them, only to have him snatched away from her yet again.  
  
Once she'd cried out all there was to cry - something she'd thought she'd accomplished a while ago - she picked herself up off of the ground and wiped her cheeks dry with her good hand before doing what she did best.  
  
Planning.  
  
There were alternate timelines, which means powerful magic. Powerful magic was where she excelled. She could get her Quentin back, rules be damned!  
  
"Todd!" She shouted, immediately hearing the scampering feet of the other Physical Kid.  
  
"What?" Todd's head peered around the corner of the cottage, his eyes glazed over, clearly high on whatever substance he found, which given Eliot's still not completely found stash, could have been anything.  
  
"We have work to do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, sorry about the shortness, but I wanted this little epilogue in here so that, just in case I decide to continue this timeline to show how we got to the point where the timeline was at when Julia and Josh showed up, I wanted to leave this open. It's still up in the air whether or not I will, because season four sucked in a lot a ways and a lot of my love died. Here's hoping I can recapture it.


End file.
